1970 24 Hours of Le Mans

Le Mans Races
Previous = 1969
Current = 1970
Next = 1971The 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 38th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on June 13 and 14, 1970. It was the eighth round of the World Sportscar Championship.

Much of the racing footage shot for the motion picture "Le Mans" was from this event, including the use of a Porsche 908 mounted with movie cameras.

Pre-race

During June 1969, Enzo Ferrari sold half of his company to Fiat. Ferrari used some of that money to build 25 cars in order to compete with the Porsche 917; the Ferrari 512, powered by a 5.0L V12, was introduced for the 1970 season. Despite a lack of factory drivers, as Ferrari had only two F1 pilots permanently under contract, a total of eleven Ferrari 512s were entered in Le Mans.

Disappointed by the poor results of the 917 in 1969 and facing a new competition, Porsche contracted John Wyer and the Gulf Team to become the official Porsche team, and also the official development partner. During tests in Zeltweg, Wyer's engineer John Horsmann had the idea to increase downforce to the expense of drag, a new tail was molded with aluminum sheets taped together. This worked well as the new short tail gave the 917 better stability. The new version was called 917 K ("Kurzheck").

Wyer was surprised to discover that another team was carefully preparing Le Mans with close support from Porsche. As in 1969, the Porsche-Salzburg team was a "de facto" second works team under control of members of the Porsche family. The Martini Racing team also gained some support from Porsche AG; obviously Porsche had made major efforts to win the race with competing teams.

A new low drag version of the 917 was developed for Le Mans with support from the external consultant Robert Choulet. The 917 LH ("Langheck") featured a spectacular new "Long Tail" body with a wing, which had very low drag and better stability than the 1969 version.

Two 917 LH were entered in Le Mans, one by Porsche-Salzburg, the other by Martini Racing. The spectacular livery of this car was an elaborate whirls and swoops of light green on a dark blue background. The car gained the nickname of the "Hippie Car" or the "Psychedelic Porsche" from the team and media. The Porsche-Salzburg's LH was powered by a new 4.9L engine that Porsche had introduced at Monza. This car had broken lap records on every track it had run before.

Wyer lined up three 917Ks, two with the 4.9L engine and one with the 4.5L unit. Porsche-Salzburg also entered a 917 K with the standard 4.5L engine for Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood.

Matra entered two MS650s (roadsters with tubular chassis) and a new MS660 (a roadster with monocoque chassis). Except for Jack Brabham all the drivers were French.

Race

Unsurprisingly, one of the low-drag, high-power Porsche-Salzburg 917 LH won the pole position with Vic Elford.

For the first time the traditional "Le Mans start" was replaced by an "Indianapolis start". For Porsche's 20th participation, Ferry Porsche himself dropped the tricolor flag at 16:00.

At 17:30 all the Ferraris had already lost touch with the leaders, when the rain began to fall. Soon after, Reine Wisell was running at reduced speed in White House in his "coda lunga" Ferrari 512 S, when Derek Bell came in another 512 S going around 160km/h (100mph) faster. Bell produced a miracle in avoiding the crash. The following Works 512 S of Clay Regazzoni hit Wisell's, and Mike Parkes hit both cars, setting his own 512 S on fire. Firemen came quickly and no drivers were seriously hurt. To complete Ferrari's disaster, Bell's engine took excessive RPMs in the adventure and broke on the Mulsanne straight, meaning that four Ferrari were out.

The rain became heavier around 20:00. The last works Ferrari was driven by Jacky Ickx and Peter Schetty. Ickx, probably the most talented driver of this era under the rain, managed to bring the car from sixth at 20:00 to second at midnight. But Ferrari lost its last chance tragically when Ickx had an accident that killed a corner worker at the Ford chicane.

Jack Brabham and François Cevert led the prototypes in the Matra roadster, but the V12s were using too much oil, and all the Matras broke piston rings at quarter distance. This wasn't the year either for Wyer; Pedro Rodríguez had a connecting rod fail, Mike Hailwood crashed in Dunlop Curves and Jo Siffert blew his engine by missing a shift while passing slower cars. The Porsche-Salzburg 917 LH had problems with its 4.9L engine, leaving only the 4.5L Porsche. All the major players were gone during the night.

At dawn the weather turned from heavy rain to storm. Three 917s were leading, followed by a 908. The remaining Porsches just had to make it home safely, driving almost all day in the heavy rain without losing concentration.

Hans Herrmann and Richard Attwood in their red and white No. 23 Porsche-Salzburg 917 K won while Gérard Larrousse and Willi Kauhsen finished second with the "Hippie Car". Only seven finishing cars were ranked, and a few others did not cover enough distance compared to the winner. Hans Herrmann, a veteran at age 40 which had survived the dangerous Mille Miglia and Carrera Panamericana races of the 1950s, had driven for Mercedes in F1 and won the Targa Florio plus many other major races for Porsche, had promised his wife to quit racing if he should finally win the big one at Le Mans, a success which he had missed narrowly in 1969. So he retired with immediate effect, much to the surprise of his team and its boss Louise Piëch.

Porsche had won Le Mans for the first time, the last and most sought after triumph for the former underdog which managed to win all others sports car races and titles during the 1960s.

Official Results

tatistics

* Pole Position - #25 Porsche KG Salzburg - 3:19.08
* Fastest Lap - #25 Porsche KG Salzburg - 3:21.00
* Distance - 4607.810km
* Average Speed - 191.992km/h

Trophy Winners

* Index of Performance - #27 Martini International Racing Team
* Index of Thermal Efficiency - #3 Martini International Racing Team